Additional description, Colossal scarab

European Museums, The British Museum

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This is one of the largest representations of scarab beetles to survive. It also ranks among the last great statues of any pharaonic deity. The scarab represented Khepri, the form assumed by the sun-god at dawn. The Egyptians noticed that scarabs hatch from buried dung balls as if by self-creation. The sun-god was also believed to be self-creating, renewing his powers each night before his rebirth at daybreak. Each sunrise was a repetition of the god's first appearance at the dawn of time as the creator god Atum. The statue is made of quartz diorite, a stone not normally used for Egyptian sculpture. Three ancient quarries have been identified, deep in the Eastern Desert. Their exploitation is archaeologically confirmed for the Roman Period, but the subject and workmanship of this piece suggest that it was made a bit earlier, under the Ptolemies. Most likely the scarab was originally set up in the temple of Atum in Heliopolis. In Roman times it was moved, probably first to Alexandria an

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Colossal scarab

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